By Elijah Ugani – Calabar
The social media space has been inundated lately with accusations and counter accusations on the scorecard of Cross River State legislators on their one year in office on the 12th of June, 2020, with Sen. Sandy Onor as the focal point.
It is our legitimate right to hold our representatives at all level accountable, this to me must be done with every sense of responsibility and self respect. I refuse to be convinced that any sane person can resort to the use of derogatory and unpleasant words to demean his or her representative in the guess of holding them accountable.
Without any equivocation or apology to any person with a contrary view, I condemn in strong terms the manner at which this matter was handled.
It is very important to state that the Media Assistant to the distinguished senator Sandy Onor, Miss Phylo Modlin Odu, being human may have erred in her approach and attempt to respond to those who have constantly called on our MPs to present their scorecard in the past one year in office.
Mr. Simon Utsu had on the 12th June called me out to present Hon. Godwin Akwaji’s scorecard, but I have been decisively and resolutely mute not because I don’t know what to respond but because, there isn’t enough to satisfy his curiosity at the moment, and so instead of putting myself forward for a ridicule and attack, I decided to stay at the fence.
However, I deemed it very auspicious to put some records straight which I think is within my precinct to provide to dole the already erroneous public perception about the operations of the national assembly with regards to constituency projects as practiced in our today democratic system.
Like others, Sen. Sandy Onor assumed office on the 12th of June, 2019 and President Muhammadu Buhari signed the Appropriation Bill on the 27th May, 2020. It necessarily follows that the 8th National Assembly members had already elected or infused constituency projects into the 2019 budget.
A quick look at Sen. John Own-Enoh for instance will reveal that some of the projects he facilitated, are the ones currently receiving attention, such as the Agbokim road and other ongoing projects.
Distinguished Sen. Sandy Onor is currently lobbying for funding to complete some of the abandoned projects while pushing for the release of funds for the new projects as captured in the 2020 Appropriation Bill which is yet to be released.
I also find it very expedient to mention that the review of the 2020 Appropriation Bill, captured some of the abandoned projects in the central senatorial district of the state for speedy execution.
Whether wrong or right, it has become a norm in our legislative system that after elections and prior to the inauguration of the new parliament, all funds including constituency funds are closed and directed to the outgoing members of parliament.
This account for why, government at all tiers, after the inauguration of parliament, makes concerted efforts to make funds available to the new members.
In view of the bottleneck associated with the system as it is currently, the distinguished Sen. Sandy Onor cannot outlined any physical achievement in terms of projects. This is however applicable to all first time members of parliament, you can verify this from any of them close to you. Hon. Alex Egbonna has the same story.
They have until December, 2020 to be able to present their scorecards in line with the funds that will be release to them.
We can ask all returning members of parliament to give us their scorecard in the first year of their second, third, forth or fifth term as it is the case with some of them.
It is worth to mention here that what I see some MPs rolled out as achievement in within the first year, is a repetition of what they displayed during the billed up to the 2019 general election.
But I can authoritatively confirm that MP Jarigbe Agom Jarigbe has initiated some projects that are currently ongoing within this one year of his second term in office, the Ijebu water project Yala local government area.
On securing federal jobs, the era of replacing ghost workers in MDAs is over, this was common between 2011 to 2019, with the introduction of IPPIS, it is very difficult but possible for a member of parliament to get you a federal job. It is our desire that our MPs use their good offices to ensure that federal character is implemented when the federal civil service commission wants to employ.
Unless you have an ulterior motive to malign the person of Sen. Prof. Sandy Onor, the explanations given here should sub peddle your curiosity and best, I have always insisted that we do everything within our reach to ensure we make contact to get some information from the person we intend to engage directly before we take to social media to vent our displeasure.
We must rise to the challenge of the moment to engage our leaders at all spheres and strata of leadership, but for us to be justified and not misunderstood, we must do it with all form of civility.
Long live Federal Republic of Nigeria
Long live Cross River State
Long live MPs of Cross River State extraction
Long live Sen. Prof. Sandy Onor
Long live all those who stand to ask the right questions about leadership in Cross River State.
Elijah Ugani is a
Development/Humanitarian Consultant
Public/Motivational Speaker
Public Affairs Analyst/Commentator
Writer/Publisher/Blogger
Social Mobilizer of High Repute
He writes from Calabar.
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